by Pieter » Sun Dec 11, 2005 8:33 am
I think both Rusty and Mike are right, sometimes you paint the PE before you apply the glue, sometimes you don't. The main problem with painting afterwards is the (in) ability to reach the parts you want to paint if you're a brush painter like me. Using a good, fine grained primer like Tamiya superfine while the PE is still on te sprue is neccesary if you brush piant PE. Use fine pigment paint with a good amount of thinner and be sure you have good (=EXPENSIVE) brushes and some brush painting experiences. I find myself more and more using Model Master acrylics, especially their figure painting range. Most of my PE radars are "Dragon Black". After all the painting and touch ups are done finish with a Dullcote spray can (one or two very light layers otherwise it yellows) to tone down the shine. Applying PE becomes different however if your PE has to carry some other parts or has to have tension applied to it (rigging for example). After priming the PE and freeing the parts from the 'sprue' you scratch away the layer of primer on the parts that have to be glue and use a good (Industial strenght) CA glue on those parts. CA takes a few days to gain it's full strength and it is not a good idea to touch up paint or apply rigging beforhand - I partially unrigged a Sktrex frigate once because of this problem.
I think both Rusty and Mike are right, sometimes you paint the PE before you apply the glue, sometimes you don't. The main problem with painting afterwards is the (in) ability to reach the parts you want to paint if you're a brush painter like me. Using a good, fine grained primer like Tamiya superfine while the PE is still on te sprue is neccesary if you brush piant PE. Use fine pigment paint with a good amount of thinner and be sure you have good (=EXPENSIVE) brushes and some brush painting experiences. I find myself more and more using Model Master acrylics, especially their figure painting range. Most of my PE radars are "Dragon Black". After all the painting and touch ups are done finish with a Dullcote spray can (one or two very light layers otherwise it yellows) to tone down the shine. Applying PE becomes different however if your PE has to carry some other parts or has to have tension applied to it (rigging for example). After priming the PE and freeing the parts from the 'sprue' you scratch away the layer of primer on the parts that have to be glue and use a good (Industial strenght) CA glue on those parts. CA takes a few days to gain it's full strength and it is not a good idea to touch up paint or apply rigging beforhand - I partially unrigged a Sktrex frigate once because of this problem.